Giveaways are one of the most effective ways of promoting your brand on Facebook. They increase brand awareness, encourage fan interaction and grow your fanbase at the same time.
How do you create a giveaway? It may look simple, but there is more to it than meets the eye. There is a lot of preparation involved and we will be sharing with you insider info of what goes behind the scenes.
- Preparation. First, you need to decide on your giveaway goal. Do you want to increase Page Likes, promote a certain product/service, or both? Your goal will shape the mechanics of your giveaway.
- Giveaway Mechanics. You will need to decide how a fan can win your giveaway. Does he need to Like, Share, Comment or Tag a friend? Does he need to create a caption, give an opinion or vote for something? Create and design the contest rules and instructions according to your giveaway goal. You also need to create giveaway terms and conditions should legal matters arise.
- Prizes. As a rule of thumb, the more difficult a giveaway, the more a prize should be worth, so that you will attract more people to participate. If your prize is not worth a lot, lower the barriers of entry by planning an easier giveaway (ie. Just “Like” the poster VS “Make a video”).
- Execution. You will need to design 1-3 visually appealing posters for your fans to share. Nobody wants to share a badly designed poster on their Facebook Newsfeed. Make your fans want to participate by making giveaway rules easy to understand and share. To increase the virality, create targeted ads to attract a specific audience (for example, do you only want to target women aged 18-30 years old for your giveaway?). Actively promote your giveaway and pin the Facebook post to the top of your page so it is easy to find.
- Closing. Now that your giveaway has ended, what is the procedure for the winner to contact you? Where and how does winner collect the prize? You also need to prepare a follow-up Facebook post to announce the winner of the giveaway. Please take note that names, identities and photos of the winner need to go through the winner’s consent before you post. You can state these considerations in your giveaway terms and conditions.
Facebook Giveaways may look simple to run, but in reality, there is a lot of thought, preparation and effort involved in order to create a successful campaign. If you are interested in running a Facebook Giveaway campaign but do not have the time, manpower and technical knowledge to do so, we can help you to manage it from the start to the end.
